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After Crushing Defeat In Her Home State, What's Next For Nikki Haley?

After Crushing Defeat In Her Home State, What's Next For Nikki Haley?

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley got clobbered by Donald Trump Saturday in her home state of South Carolina, just as everyone predicted.

Haley's candidacy has already lasted longer than most election analysts predicted and certainly longer than Trump would like. Here's a look at what comes next.

1. Does Haley have a path to winning the nomination?

No. There's no world in which Haley manages to match, much less surpass, Trump's delegate count given the makeup of today's Republican Party.

Even in the event of Trump choking on the proverbial cheeseburger, Haley would face incredibly steep odds in brokering a convention deal among a bunch of delegates whose worship of Trump is complete and total. Such a convention showdown would be an awesome spectacle, but those delegates would almost surely vote for someone in Trump's mold, or maybe even anointed by him. That person will not be Haley.

2. Why is Haley still running?

It seems increasingly clear, based on the sharpness of her attacks on Trump, that Haley is trying to build a brand for the future, perhaps including a 2028 presidential bid. If Trump loses, Haley can say, “I told you so.” And at a spry 52 years of age, she can start laying the groundwork for her next political act, whether it's as part of the Republican Party or some other party that arises out of the GOP's wreckage.

3. Does Haley have a better shot on Super Tuesday than she did in South Carolina?

Yes. In spite of Haley's experience serving as governor of South Carolina, it remains a deeply conservative state with a relatively low level of college-educated voters. Haley's advisers have noted that 11 of the 16 contests taking place on Super Tuesday will be open or semi-open primaries that will inevitably include more voters receptive to Haley's insurgent pitch. The electorate in several of those states also boasts a greater concentration of the college-educated voters who have fueled Haley's campaign thus far. States that include some type of open primary coupled with a highly educated electorate, such as Massachusetts and Virginia, will be Haley’s sweet spot. She may not win them, but she will likely fare better there than in the Palmetto State.

4. Any chance Haley will be Trump's running mate?

Highly doubtful. Trump wants a running mate who will lie like a rug for him and trample the Constitution if that's what it takes to keep him in power. He doesn't want another Mike Pence fiasco. Plenty of malleable candidates have already stepped forward to demonstrate their bootlicking cred, including House Republicans' number three, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, and former 2024 hopeful-turned-Trump backer Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

5. Will Haley eventually fall in line on Trump?

Perhaps. But with each passing day, Haley's attacks on Trump get more pointed and trenchant, making it harder for her to walk that plank when she calls it quits.

During this week’s press conference on the state of the race, Haley said of Trump, "I feel no need to kiss the ring. I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him."

If Haley is really building a brand for the future, she might think twice before endorsing a man she has repeatedly called "unstable and unhinged." In fact, Haley has finally hit her messaging stride because she sounds authentic, as if she is being true to herself and her own beliefs rather than hedging her bets in a party where she no longer belongs.

So it's just possible, if not exactly probable, that Haley declines to endorse Trump when she inevitably ends her bid.

If Trump wins the general election, however, Haley could very likely come crawling back in search of an administration position. There's nothing Trump relishes more than a contrite convert.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Clinton Wins Big In South Carolina On Way To ‘Super Tuesday’

Clinton Wins Big In South Carolina On Way To ‘Super Tuesday’

By John Whitesides and Amanda Becker

COLUMBIA, S.C. (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton crushed rival Bernie Sanders at the South Carolina primary on Saturday, propelling her into next week’s crucial “Super Tuesday” voting in 11 states on a wave of momentum.

The rout of Sanders solidified Clinton’s status as the strong front-runner to capture the party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 election in her quest to become America’s first woman president.

With nearly half of the votes counted in South Carolina, Clinton led Sanders by a 50-point margin, dramatically reversing her 28-point loss in the state to President Barack Obama during their bitter 2008 primary battle.

The former secretary of state’s victory decisively established her strength among black voters, a crucial Democratic constituency who make up more than half of the party’s primary electorate in South Carolina.

After the win, Clinton appeared to be looking ahead to a general-election matchup with Republican front-runner Donald Trump, the billionaire whose campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again” and has called for building a wall on the border with Mexico.

“Despite what you hear, we don’t need to make America great again, America has never stopped being great,” she told cheering supporters in Columbia after the win. “Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers.”

The result was Clinton’s third victory in the first four Democratic contests, and raised more questions about whether Sanders, the democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, will be able to expand his support beyond his base of predominantly white liberals.

“Today you sent a message,” Clinton said. “In America, when we stand together, there is no barrier too big to break.”

Sanders admitted defeat early in the night.

“Let me be clear on one thing tonight. This campaign is just beginning. We won a decisive victory in New Hampshire. She won a decisive victory in South Carolina. Now it’s on to Super Tuesday,” Sanders said in a statement.

NATIONAL RACE

The Democratic race now becomes a broader national contest. Eleven states, including six in the South with large minority populations where polls show Clinton with big leads, will vote on Super Tuesday and four more over the next weekend.

“Tomorrow, this campaign goes national,” Clinton said.

Clinton’s camp was hoping a big win in South Carolina, after more narrow victories in Iowa and Nevada and Sanders’ clear win in New Hampshire, will set her up for a big night on Tuesday, when about 875 delegates will be up for grabs, more than one-third of those needed to win the nomination.

Sanders, who has energized the party’s liberal wing and brought young people to the polls with his message of attacking income equality and reining in Wall Street, needs a breakthrough win in a key state in the next few weeks to keep his hopes alive.

“The door is closing fast for Bernie Sanders,” unaligned Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis said. “Movement candidates are about momentum and excitement, and losses sap that momentum. That’s his problem right now.”

Recognizing his steep odds in South Carolina, Sanders had spent most of the past week in states that will vote in March. As the results rolled in on Saturday, he was scheduled to hold a rally in the “Super Tuesday” state of Minnesota.

(Additional reporting by Alana Wise in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Photo: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks about the results of the South Carolina primary to supporters at a primary night party in Columbia, South Carolina, February 27, 2016. REUTERS/Randall Hill

South Carolina Polls: Clinton On Verge Of Landslide Over Sanders

South Carolina Polls: Clinton On Verge Of Landslide Over Sanders

Democratic voters in South Carolina are headed to the polls Saturday for the fourth showdown between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. And the very likely outcome: Clinton appears set to win a blowout victory — potentially even greater than Sanders’s own previous landslide in New Hampshire — fueled in part by a wide appeal to minority voters.

The poll from Emerson College has Clinton at 60 percent of likely voters, against 37 percent for Sanders, almost the exact opposite of the result in New Hampshire.

Within the poll, 71 percent of African-American respondents support Clinton, versus 25 percent for Sanders. But even among South Carolina’s white Democratic voters, the poll shows Clinton leading 57 percent to 40 percent.

The difference is even starker in the survey from Clemson University: Hillary with 64 percent, and Bernie at just 14 percent. Between these two polls, the the support for Clinton is quite similar, with a vast difference only in Sanders’s showing.

So far in the Democratic primary campaign, Clinton won the Iowa caucuses by only a razor-thin margin, and then faced a stark defeat from Sanders in New Hampshire. She came back to a narrow victory in the Nevada caucuses and now appears set to win the the fourth contest with such a sweeping victory that it could restore her momentum toward the nomination — and, maybe, cast doubts upon Sanders’s ability to reach out beyond his base of younger white voters and into the minority communities that fuel Democratic wins in the general elections.

Photo: Saffron Cafe and Bakery owner Ali Rahnamoon (R) kisses the hand of U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as she arrives to greet voters at his cafe in Charleston, South Carolina, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Late Night Roundup: Trump’s Big Win Down South

Late Night Roundup: Trump’s Big Win Down South

In the wake of the South Carolina primary, two topics dominated the late night shows: Donald Trump’s massive victory — and the final, definitive end of “Jeb!”

Trevor Noah reviewed all of Donald Trump’s antics on the way to winning South Carolina: “In one week alone, Donald Trump fought with the Pope, blamed George Bush for 9/11, and then he said he would stop terrorism by shooting Muslims with bullets dipped in pig’s blood. For real, this is what he said. And then finally, finally, last Saturday, South Carolina voters were like, ‘Stop! We’ve heard enough — you should be our president.”

Larry Wilmore bluntly diagnosed the reason why Jeb Bush failed so miserably as a presidential candidate: “Jeb’s blindness to his brother’s failure was the central problem in his campaign. He never realized his brother’s presidency was a disaster that Americans did not want to return to.”

Stephen Colbert said we’d have to get used to saying the words, “President Donald Trump” — but first he had to fight back a little nausea himself: “I think I just Trumped in my mouth a little.”

Conan O’Brien explained: “Analysts say that Donald Trump’s GOP rivals are running out of time to defeat him — that’s what they’re saying. This is not according to the electoral schedule — it’s according to the Book of Revelation.”

Seth Meyers asked why it is that Trump keeps changing his positions on issues like war and health care, but Republican voters keep flocking to him? The answer: He keeps saying racist and hateful stuff.

James Corden mourned the loss of Jeb Bush from the presidential race. “George W. Bush was a little confused why Jeb quit because he was losing — because as far as George W. Bush is concerned, you still become president even when you don’t get the most votes.”

Samantha Bee looked at the idea that John Kasich is somehow the “moderate” Republican candidate.